The Ocean? THE OCEAN?? The OCEAN...Is on FIRE???

Hey Hot Cakes,

We're back! Last week we took the weekend off to celebrate Amy's birthday, and after a week of some pretty okay news about climate, boy did things take a turn. Lots to talk about this week. We hope you're hanging in there!

Thanks for reading,

Mary + Amy

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The Ocean? THE OCEAN?? The OCEAN...Is on FIRE???

By Mary Annaïse Heglar

The Gulf of Mexico—confirmed body of water—caught on fire on Friday. Fire. In the ocean. The images looked like some shit out of a bad early 2000s action film about impending global warming. But, nah, these were newsreels. This shit really happened.

Of course, oceans don’t just “catch on fire”—not unless of course someone is digging up some of the deadliest, most flammable shit known to man and using an underwater pipeline system to ship it to refineries so that it could eventually be set on fire. And, the people doing that would HAVE to know that when that shit is set on fire, it’s going to egg on climate change. And the people trying to stop them would have to be labeled criminals. This ain’t rocket science. It’s not an accident.

When I saw those apocalyptic images, all I could think was: what if there was a hurricane in the same spot at the same time? What level of threat multiplication is that?

The fire in the ocean is greed run wild. We have to stop listening to the people who tell us that the end of capitalism is the end of the world. That is just a lack of imagination talking. There was something before capitalism, and there can be something after, if we build it. And we have to. I’m sick of this late-stage capitalism bullshit. Let’s skip to the good part. Let’s end this shit.

P.S. Wanna help stop some pipelines? Here’s some ways to get involved.


Exxon Continues to Be Full of Shit

By Amy Westervelt

Last week, in a remarkable expose, the investigative journalists at Unearthed (a Greenpeace project)teamed up with Channel 4 in the UK to publish videos of former Exxon lobbyists walking a journalist-posing-as-a-recruiter through the company's deny-and-delay playbook on climate. They laid it all out.

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People Waking Up to the Climate Crisis Is Good, Actually

By Mary Annaïse Heglar

If you’ve been attuned to the climate crisis for any significant amount of time, you’ve probably learned to fear the summer headlines. Of course, no season is immune to disaster, and it’s always summer somewhere, and disasters in the Global South barely get whispered about. But, summer is when shit gets really, really, really real in the Global North. Which means it’s the time we hear about it.

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On Not Giving Up

By Amy Westervelt

There's been a lot swirling around out there lately about climate despair, especially as climate impacts become more and more impossible to ignore. Is it over? Are we done for? Is there any point in continuing to fight? I mean...kinda yes on all three? Here's the thing: you don't give up the fight just because you haven't won yet. And yeah, it might not happen in your lifetime or the next generation's or even the one after that, but maybe the one after that will have you to thank for keeping on. And that's fucking worth it.

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Digest

Your weekly round-up of climate coverage.

Rising Temperatures, Rising Tides

Not to Alarm Anyone, but the Gulf of Mexico Is on Fire [gizmodo.com] by Alyse Stanley for Earther

Wildfire Devastates Canadian Town That's Broke Heat Record by Matt Novak for Earther

Hurricane Elsa the Is First Hurricane of 2021, On Track for US by Brian Kahn for Earther

New York Faces Blackouts as Extreme Heat Strains the Grid by Dharna Noor for Earther

Alaska Just Had an 'Ice Quake' Due to the Extreme Heat Wave by Brianna Provenzano for Earther

Pacific Northwest Ground Temperatures Hit 145 Degrees by Brian Kahn for Earther

'Historic' Heat Wave Sets Record Highs Across West Coast, Canada by Alyse Stanley for Earther

The US Power Grid Isn’t Ready for Climate Change, by Rebecca Heilweil for Vox

Heat wave 2021: Extreme heat, heat domes, and how climate change makes it worse by Umair Irfan for Vox

Deaths Spike as Heat Wave Broils Canada and the Pacific Northwest by Vjosa Isai, Dan Bilefsky and Shawn Hubler for the New York Times

What a Water Shortage Is Doing to Some of America’s Best Farmland by Somini Sengupta for the New York Times

Is climate change amping up the PNW heat wave? Yes — and it’s time to stop asking. by Shannon Osaka for Grist

‘The water is coming’: Florida Keys faces stark reality as seas rise by Oliver Milman for Grist

‘We Thought It Wouldn’t Affect Us’: Heatwave Forces Climate Reckoning in Pacific North West, by Levi Pulkkinen for The Guardian

The Heatwave is Literally Melting Portland’s Infrastructure, by Aaron Gordon for Vice

Dozens Dead as Canada Hits Record High Temperature for Third Straight Day, by Anya Zoledziowski for Vice

One Day After Setting Canada’s Heat Record, Town Burns to The Ground, by Mack Lamoreaux for Vice

Death Toll from Northwest Heat Wave Expected to Keep Rising, by Manuel Valdez for the LA Times

The Climate Presidency?

Bipartisanship Is Climate Denial by Brian Kahn for Earther

Opinion | Biden risks botching a key chance to fight climate change by Thea Riofrancos and Mark Paul for the Washington Post

The Biden White House Has an Exxon Problem, by Kate Aronoff for The New Republic

How Biden is spending his first big environmental justice fund by Adam Mahoney for Grist

Climate Activist: Biden’s Plan the ‘Bare Minimum,’ by Tim O’Donnell for The Week

Climate Accountability

We Now Know How Exxon Secretly Fights Crackdowns on Plastic Pollution by Dharna Noor for Earther

Right-Wing Media Outraged Energy Secretary Mentions Climate Change and Miami Condo Collapse by Dharna Noor for Earther

Exxon Lobbyists Reveal Climate Delay Strategy in Secret Recordings by Molly Taft for Earther

The scientists hired by big oil who predicted the climate crisis long ago by Emma Pattee for the Guardian

How cities and states could finally hold fossil fuel companies accountable by Chris McGreal and Alvin Chang for the Guardian

Patreon Is Bankrolling Climate Change Deniers While We All Burn, by David Gilbert for Vice

Watch an Exxon Lobbyist Explains How the Oil Giant Fights Climate Science, by Audrey Carleton for Vice

The Climate Crisis is a Crime Story, by Mark Hertsgaard for The Nation

Big Oil and Gas Kept a Dirty Secret for Decades. Now They May Pay the Price, by Chris McGreal for The Nation

Justice Is Justice Is Justice

The Climate Crisis Is A Public Health Crisis : Short Wave by Rhitu Chatterjee and Rebecca Ramirez

A harvest for the world: A Black family farm is fighting racism in agriculture and climate change by Darryl Fears for the Washington Post

$50 million for environmental justice, by Adam Mahoney for Grist

Activists Are Sharing Land In Vermont With People Escaping Climate Disaster, by Ella Fassler for Vice

Farmworkers Endure Brutal Conditions During Historic Heat Wave, by Lauren Kaori Gurley for Vice

Extreme Heat is Killing People in Arizona’s Mobile Homes, by Karen Peterson for The Washington Post

Underpaid firefighters, overstretched budgets: the US isn’t prepared for fires fueled by climate change, by Sarah Kaplan for the Washington Post

Glimmers of Hope

How to cool a city without air conditioning by Rebecca Leber for Vox

These Superheroes Could Sharply Reduce Heat Deaths by Catrin Einhorn for the New York Times

Arctic’s ‘Last Ice Area’ May Be Less Resistant to Global Warming by Henry Fountain for the New York Times

New climate science could cause wave of litigation against businesses – study by Fiona Harvey for The Guardian

Mouse Thought to Be Extinct for 150 Years Found Alive on an Island, by Becky Ferriera for Vice

Heat Pumps Are Ready to Have a Moment by Brian Kahn for Earther

Climate in Culture

BBC Lists 'Positive' Climate Change Impacts Kids Study Guide by Molly Taft for Earther

From Alaska to Louisiana, here are the voices of the new climate 'normal' by Grist

The Crucial, Little Understood Science of the Sea Floor, by Jo Livingstone for The New Republic

Work Really Sucks When It’s Hot, by Kate Aronoff for The New Republic

Climate Change Could Destroy America’s Roads, by Aaron Gordon for Vice

Ubers and Lyfts Can Be Electrified Now, But Drivers Aren’t So Sure, by Aaron Gordon for Vice

Plus More

Miami Building Collapse Raises Concerns About Coastal Resiliency, by Audrey Carleton for Vox


A Massive Lake Suddenly Vanished in Antarctica, Scientists Discover, by Becky Ferriera for Vice


The End of the World is Closer than It Seems, by Tom Englehard for The Nation


Do you understand climate change: rain bombs, carbon pricing and mass electrification,  by Ilana Marcus for the Washington Post

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